The End of an Era
by DarthRoslin
Summary: One-Shot. On the day her divorce is finalised Sharon receives a small gift which makes her take a trip down memory lane.


The sound of loud giggling filled the small hotel suite. Her mother was smiling brightly at her reflection in the mirror as she finished braiding Sharon's hair. Her hand slipped from her daughter's tresses to rest against Sharon's shoulder.

"You look beautiful, sweetheart." Catherine whispered.

"Thanks Mom." Sharon replied, reaching up to pat her mother's hand.

The bridesmaids gathered around Sharon, ushering her into another room to finally put on her dress. The white satin felt cool against her pale flesh as she twirled for the girls surrounding her. Sharon could feel her face redden as a chorus of dreamy sighs swept through the room. She was the epitome of a blushing bride.

She turned to the roses on the hotel room table and reached for the card nestled in among the blooms. She re-read it one last time.

 _"Sharon,_

 _A beautiful bouquet of roses for my beautiful bride._

 _I can't wait to call you my wife._

 _All my love,_

 _Jack."_

Placing the card back on the table she spun to face the waiting group of friends.

"Okay, let's go get married."

x

The ringing of her phone jolted Sharon from her memory. She glanced away from the bouquet sitting on her desk and smiled as she swiped her finger across the phone's screen.

"Hello sweetheart." She greeted her daughter. She would be forever be grateful for the invention of FaceTime to allow her to at least see her children when they were so far away.

"Hey Mom. How are you coping today?" Emily smiled sympathetically at her mother, a look Sharon was getting a lot of today. Sharon could only roll her eyes in response.

"I'm fine, Em. You don't need to worry about me and you didn't need to call. You can tell that to your brothers as well."

"We feel bad that we're not there today. It's just bad luck that Rusty's visit to Ricky coincided with this."

"It's not like we didn't know this was coming, Emily. Your father signed the papers weeks ago and we were just waiting for the bureaucratic filing to make it official." Sharon sighed as she saw her daughter's expression turn to a deep frown. "I do appreciate the flowers you sent though."

"Flowers?" Emily asked. "What flowers?"

"You didn't send…" It was Sharon's turn to frown as her gaze moved from her daughter to the yellow roses sitting on her desk.

"Someone sent you flowers?" Emily asked, trying to regain her mother's attention. "Are they from Dad?"

"No the card doesn't make sense from your father. I thought one of you kids…" Sharon drifted off as she spotted her team returning to the murder room after their lunch. Andy Flynn held up a paper bag she presumed held the salad she has asked the team to get her while they were out.

Sharon raised a hand indicating him to wait while she finished her conversation with Emily. He simply smiled at her and placed the bag at the edge of his desk before turning to laugh at something Amy had said to Provenza.

"Mom? Mom!" Emily waved a hand in front of the screen to catch Sharon's attention.

"Sorry honey. It's nothing. I made a mistake, the flowers must be from the team."

"Okay." Emily dragged the word out eyeing her mother suspiciously. "I'll leave you get back to _your team_. I love you Mom. Call the boys tonight – you know they'll want to hear from you."

Sharon rolled her eyes but returned the sentiment before hanging up. She had just placed the phone back on the desk when Andy knocked on her office door and entered as she nodded at him.

"They didn't have that Jasmine tea you like so I went with the Camomile." He placed the lunchbag and a takeout coffee cup in front of her, in his other hand he held a manila folder.

"Thank you Lieutenant, Camomile is just fine."

"The DNA results from the blood samples found near Miss Alvarez's body came back while we were out and just like you predicted the sister was lying about not being anywhere near the crime scene." Andy handed her the folder open to the lab report he was summarising.

"Good. Let Amy and Julio bring the other Miss Alvarez in for questioning and when Mike has finished decrypting the victims emails I'm sure we'll have even more to discuss with her." Sharon pushed her bag containing her salad to the side and stood from her desk. Her lunch would just have to wait a little longer.

"Provenza and I can start working on getting a search warrant for the house while we wait for Miss Alvarez." Andy smiled at her and then moved towards the office door.

Sharon's gaze fell to the note that was tucked in amongst the flowers that had been delivered that morning. She had thought it was a present from Emily. That her daughter was trying to reach out but that's what Emily's phone call had been. No, if she was honest with herself she had known all along exactly who had sent her this bouquet.

"Andy." The lieutenant's hand stilled on the door handle and he turned to face her again. "Thank you for the flowers."

He grinned at her, a trademark cheeky Andrew Flynn grin, and exited her office without saying a word. She heard the sound of the door closing softly behind him as she picked the card up to re-read it one last time.

 _"The end of a marriage isn't always a bad thing._

 _Enjoy these yellow roses and let a bit of sunshine back into your life."_

She opened the top drawer of her desk and slipped the card beneath several folders before closing it. Smiling brightly she strode out of her office into the murder room catching the attention of her waiting team.

"Okay, let's go catch a killer."

 _FIN_


End file.
